Bohemian rhapsody

Puccini's enduring La BohM-hme opens unevenly at the Arsht.

April 16, 2008|By Jack Zink Theater/Music Writer

When is Puccini's La BohM-hme ever not in season? The Florida Grand Opera's latest revival finds itself part of another flurry of operatic bohemianism.

La BohM-hme's opening Saturday at Miami's Arsht Center was flanked by the rock musical Rent (lovingly knocked off from Puccini) at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach and the latest revival of Franco Zeffirelli's 1981 production at New York's Metropolitan Opera itself.

You can see the others through this week, the nicely sung FGO production through May 10 - and start over next season with the Palm Beach Opera's just-announced edition.

The last time Florida Grand tried La BohM-hme, in 2003, updating was the rage. Miami waded in tentatively with some costume touches, while Baz Luhrmann's theatrical version set firmly in the 1950s was on Broadway.

This month, we're back in authentic 1830 with Zack Brown's superb period costumes from the Washington National Opera, plus the evocative set by Michael Yeargan depicting Paris' Latin Quarter.

Populating that neighborhood is this production's best asset, a fine ensemble of young bohemians led by stage director Nicola Bowie that capture the characters' youthful, fun-loving spirits as well as their jealous highs and romantic lows.

The enduring appeal of La BohM-hme is the fusion of Puccini's music with his overriding concept (in the libretto by collaborators Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica) of a compact, youthfully robust romantic drama.

But whether it's a quirk in the Ziff Ballet Opera House's acoustics or an imbalance in the orchestra itself, the opening-night instrumental fabric was fitful, ranging at times from overwhelming, smothering the singers with reeds and brass, to occasionally thin and wiry in the violins.

The ensemble represents a pattern in Florida Grand's casting that of late evokes the sense of a repertory company. Many principals are returnees with careers on the rise, some sprung from the Florida Grand's own Young Artists program.

Soprano Elizabeth Caballero, Musetta in FGO's 2003 production, is this year's Mimi, husky of figure and voice, who easily propels the romantic convulsions but skates tenuously across some subtler passages.

Mimi arrives late on a blustery Christmas Eve, a poor girl subsisting on embroidery, seeking a light for her candle, which has gone out. The moment is love at first sight for the playwright Rodolfo, one of four struggling artisans huddled in a drafty garret when their luck is down. James Valenti is a handsome, vigorous leading man with a ripe, colorful tenor voice that flies appealingly solo and merges smartly with his co-stars. Valenti also brought verve to the FGO's Lucia di Lammermoor in 2005 and to Palm Beach Opera's Madame Butterfly last season.

Troy Cook is the cast's ringleader, an animated Marcello the painter, always engaging but especially so while sparring with Jill Gardner's Musetta, leading up to and through Quando men vo (a k a Musetta's Waltz) without undermining Gardner's premier moment.

Gardner herself sang the flirtation rather harshly, though; she found the humor in her act-three spat with Cook, and the grace moments in the finale, where Mimi describes her as "so very good" of heart.

Miami regular Cory Crider gives a standout performance as the plucky, pranksterish musician Schaunard, and Tom Corbell is Colline, the more reserved member of the group, giving a pensive approach to Vecchia zimmara, senti ("Dear old coat, listen"). Comic finish is delivered by Stefan Szkafarowsky in dual roles as the landlord Benoit and Musetta's sugar daddy, Alcindoro.

A big, hearty chorus fills the square and cafe when the second act opens up the story, but it's the small principal ensemble's singing of Puccini's redolent score that should keep La BohM-hme on the most-popular list through this run.